Ill be done with rehab in November....thankfully, they're killing my wife and I.

We're paying $250/mo for my DofE loans and it's really hurting us financially...especially since we're looking for a home after rehab and saving money is tough.

So my question is...when these loans come out of rehab will the monthly bill be lower than what it currently is? My wife and I cannot continue to pay $250/mo on this loan till it's paid...we'll end up in bankruptcy.

My payments during rehab were $50/month. After rehab it went up to $450, but I owe a ton of money... lol.

Your repayment amount will depend on the amount you owe and how long you take to pay it off. I *think* the default they set you up with is a 9 or 10 yr repayment plan. As soon as you get out of rehab and a lender buys your loan, contact them about setting up something different if the amount they give you isn't feasible.

They have lots of options - you can consolidate, do an income-sensitive plan (where your payments are low up front, then increase over the term of the loan), or change your payback time period (depending upon the total amt you owe).

I consolidated after rehab and now my payments are $115/mth. I pay more than the minimum, but it's nice that I don't *have* to if I'm low on cash one month. Plus it lowers my overall DTI, which is important when trying to get a house.

Congrats on getting through rehab!!!

Thanks...makes me feel a little better. Hopefully DofE will change the TL's soon after I complete rehab.

This has been a very hard year with paying this bill. But the bill comes in and we pay it the next day.

This might be the voices in my head...but there's no way they withhold the final payment...tell me they never received it and make me start the whole process over again right?

Id have to get a good lawyer...

LOL... I know how you feel, but don't worry. Do stay on top of them after your 12th payment though and make sure they get your regular payment program set up in a timely manner. Do you know yet who will be your regular servicer?

I rehabbed through a CA, so I had to wait til a lender picked up my loan and sent me a repayment plan. Took around 5 weeks, so I ended up making a 13th rehab payment just to be sure nobody could ever say I was late.

Are you rehabbing through DofE directly? Will you be repaying them directly after rehab? If you don't know, you might want to call and ask exactly how it's gonna work. That way you know exactly what to expect according to their policies, so you can really be on top of anything if it doesn't happen like it's supposed to.

Im going straight thru DofE and their CA :twisted:

So Im guessing it'll go right back to the DofE...wish SM would pick it up..I already have 1 loan payment with them, so having both with SM would help alot.

Pls don't tell me it is with Pioneer? they screwed me royally.

No not pioneer...it's financial asset Mgmt. I guess it's their internal CA. Dunno..but Im almost done

Actually, my CA was Pioneer. I found them fairly easy to work with. How did they screw you royally? Perhaps someone here can help.

Like Cheech, I'm also a Pioneer alumni (just finished with them 2 weeks ago) and had a good experience with them. What happened? Did you get things worked out.

If you go to the web site below and click on "online calculator" on the left side of the page, you can get to a direct loans consolidation page. It will allow you to type in all of your loans and then you can say if you want it to include the income contingent plan in the calculation (you have to give a little more info if you do). It will give you a rough estimate of what you can expect for payments (it was only about $1/mo off for me, so it's a really good estimate) with the different plans (extended, graduated, income contingent). It's not an application or anything -- I did about 50 scenarios during rehab! -- but it will allow you to get some ideas of what things will be when you're done. The site is:
http://loanconsolidation.ed.gov/borrower/b.../borrower.shtml

My payments also decreased by over 1/2 after rehab, so it's certainly possible that you'll find that your payments will go way down.

Good luck and congrats on the end of rehab!!

Pioneer had me believe that I was Rehabbing my Student Loans and not until I spoke with DOE 2 weeks ago I found out that it was not the case. According to DOE it was not a rehab that what I was doing I was making payment to bring current to consolidate my loans. Unfortunately this was 1.5 yrs ago and since have lost all paperwork regarding this so I am stuck. Live and learn I didn't have CB's and didn't know my rights.

Did you pay by check or by money order? If you paid by check, can you get copies of them from the bank as proof that you'd made the "12 voluntary payments"? As I understand it, you don't really need an actual "rehab agreement" with the CA; you just need to make the payments. Since you presumably made 12 monthly payments to DOE - or whoever the OC was (through Pioneer, which is how mine worked, anyway), then you completed rehab. I think there was a thread on this earlier; you might want to do a search for this.

Good luck -- sorry you had a bad experience!!!

ziggy is absolutely correct on this. You don't need an official rehab agreement to be considered in rehab (although it's helpful just to have the paper trail). I'd try to find proof that you pay 12, consecutive, voluntary monthly payments. If you can, then I'd definitely be sending that to DOE and the ombudsman.

Somewhere in this forum I've actually quoted the part of the Higher Education Act that states that regulation. Do a search on 'HEA' or 'Higher Education Act' and it'll show up.

If Pioneer had you believing you were rehabbing your loan, did they send you an actual rehab agreement? That is standard practice for them as far as I know. Definitely follow up on this and let us know how we can help.